# dbt Core vs dlt

| Attribute | dbt Core | dlt |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 64.9 (77% (high)) | 66.1 (49% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 52 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 553 | 23 |
| adoption.github_stars | 13,694 | 5,779 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 21,005,917 | - |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | dbt is a framework that enables data teams to transform data using SQL-based development practices similar to software engineering, with built-in testing, version control, and deployment capabilities. It provides lineage tracking, documentation, and can run locally or in the cloud. | A hosted service combining the open-source dlt Python library with managed infrastructure, observability, data quality testing, and team collaboration features for building and running data pipelines. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"transform","lineage":true,"paradigm":"batch","dbt_native":true,"data_quality":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"6+ named integrations with broader ecosystem","self_hosted_oss":true}` | `{"cdc":true,"role":"elt","lineage":true,"paradigm":"both","data_quality":true,"elt_pushdown":true,"python_first":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"5,000+","self_hosted_oss":true,"incremental_runs":true}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | 28 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Tableau"},{"name":"Fivetran"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Azure AI"},{"name":"Databricks"}]` | `[{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"HubSpot"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Databricks"},{"name":"BigQuery"},{"name":"MotherDuck"},{"name":"DuckDB"},{"name":"SQLite"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"Amazon S3"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage"},{"name":"Microsoft Azure"},{"name":"SFTP"},{"name":"Parquet"},{"name":"Apache Delta"},{"name":"Apache Iceberg"},{"name":"DuckLake"},{"name":"Pydantic Logfire"},{"name":"Arize"},{"name":"Langfuse"},{"name":"LangChain"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Apache Airflow"},{"name":"Dagster"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"Marimo"},{"name":"Hugging Face"}]` |
| language.primary | Rust | Python |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"DE","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Developer","summary":"Free","features":["Browser-based IDE","Multi-factor authentication (MFA)","Job scheduling","Keep on the latest dbt release"],"minSeats":1,"description":"The fastest way to get started with dbt","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"seats":"1","projects":"1","successful_models_per_month":"3,000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Starter","summary":"$100/seat/month","features":["All Developer features","dbt Catalog basic","dbt Semantic Layer basic","dbt Copilot code generation","API access"],"minSeats":5,"components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"seat","amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Pay as you go pricing for your first dbt project","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"seats":"5","projects":"1","queried_metrics_per_month":"5,000","successful_models_per_month":"15,000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["All Starter features","dbt Catalog advanced","dbt Semantic Layer advanced","dbt Copilot","dbt Canvas","dbt Insights","dbt Mesh Enterprise"],"contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"projects":"30","queried_metrics_per_month":"20,000","successful_models_per_month":"100,000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise+","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["All Enterprise features","PrivateLink","IP Restrictions","Rollback","Hybrid projects"],"contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"projects":"Unlimited","queried_metrics_per_month":"20,000","successful_models_per_month":"100,000"}}],"summary":"Free Developer tier, $100/seat/month for Starter, custom pricing for Enterprise","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.getdbt.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:08:54.690Z","freeTrialDays":14,"startingPrice":{"amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"dlt","summary":"Free, Apache 2.0 licensed","features":["Apache 2.0 open-source license","Code-first ingestion library","Reliable ingestion and loading","Limited verified OSS connectors","AI help and community support","Self-managed runtime","Unlimited pipelines and notebooks"],"description":"Open-source Python library for data ingestion","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"dltHub","summary":"$1,190/month base + $0.80–$1.00/credit for usage beyond 500 credits/month. 5% discount on annual commitment.","features":["Everything in dlt, plus:","Managed runtime","Hosted Marimo notebooks","AI Workbench (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor)","Data quality metrics and checks","Observability dashboard","Collaboration workflows for teams","Role-based access control (RBAC)","Audit logs","Source-available capabilities (AI workbench, CDC, Iceberg, transformations)","Eligible for volume discounts"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":1190,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"credit"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.8,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Managed runtime and collaboration platform","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"credits":"500/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing. Contact sales.","features":["Custom credits and volume pricing","Enterprise security and governance controls","Role-based access control (RBAC) and audit logs","SLA and tailored support options","Custom onboarding and architecture guidance"],"description":"Custom pricing and governance for security-focused organizations","contactSales":true}],"summary":"From $1,190/month with 500 included credits. Free open-source tier. 14-day free trial with $30 credits.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T22:25:32.490Z","freeTrialDays":14,"startingPrice":{"amount":0.8,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 2 | 12 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.3","date":"2026-08-21T00:28:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.11.14","date":"2026-08-20T15:48:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v2.0.0-beta.2","date":"2026-08-18T18:00:10Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-beta.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.8.10","date":"2026-08-14T06:08:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.7.20","date":"2026-08-14T06:51:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.20"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.6.19","date":"2026-08-14T08:06:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.5.12","date":"2026-08-14T08:46:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.4.10","date":"2026-08-14T10:47:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.3.8","date":"2026-08-14T13:11:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.3.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.2.7","date":"2026-08-14T13:54:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.1.6","date":"2026-08-14T13:48:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.9.11","date":"2026-08-13T20:13:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.2","date":"2026-08-12T19:27:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.1","date":"2026-08-12T10:43:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.11.13","date":"2026-08-12T15:48:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.10.23","date":"2026-08-12T16:28:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.10.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v2.0.0-beta.1","date":"2026-08-10T15:35:44Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-beta.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v2.0.0-alpha.5","date":"2026-07-20T10:03:00Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-alpha.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.0","date":"2026-07-16T13:56:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.0rc3","date":"2026-07-14T22:48:06Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.12.0rc3"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.30.0","date":"2026-08-11T13:23:00Z","type":"stable","version":"1.30.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.29.1","date":"2026-07-24T11:32:31Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.29.0","date":"2026-07-13T09:31:54Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.28.2","date":"2026-07-10T12:29:18Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.28.1","date":"2026-06-19T19:48:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.28.0","date":"2026-06-15T16:14:02Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.27.2","date":"2026-05-29T17:13:29Z","type":"stable","version":"1.27.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.27.0","date":"2026-05-19T12:55:55Z","type":"stable","version":"1.27.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.26.0","date":"2026-04-28T18:49:52Z","type":"stable","version":"1.26.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.25.0","date":"2026-04-15T07:41:56Z","type":"stable","version":"1.25.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.24.0","date":"2026-03-19T11:59:54Z","type":"stable","version":"1.24.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.23.0","date":"2026-03-06T14:47:17Z","type":"stable","version":"1.23.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.22.2","date":"2026-03-01T18:44:08Z","type":"stable","version":"1.22.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.22.1","date":"2026-02-23T20:59:59Z","type":"stable","version":"1.22.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.22.0","date":"2026-02-17T16:55:47Z","type":"stable","version":"1.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.21.0","date":"2026-01-20T12:11:39Z","type":"stable","version":"1.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.20.0","date":"2025-12-09T23:13:14Z","type":"stable","version":"1.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.19.1","date":"2025-12-02T22:02:07Z","type":"stable","version":"1.19.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.19.0","date":"2025-12-01T15:52:25Z","type":"stable","version":"1.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.18.2","date":"2025-11-03T16:04:35Z","type":"stable","version":"1.18.2"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 6 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":4,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=dbt-core&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=dlt&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Data Engineering Tools)

| Capability | dbt Core | dlt |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | Transformation | ELT / ingestion |
| Processing paradigm | Batch | Batch + streaming |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | 6+ named integrations with broader ecosystem | 5,000+ |
| CDC / log-based replication | - | ✓ |
| **Transformation** |  |  |
| In-warehouse transformation (push-down) | - | ✓ |
| dbt-native orchestration | ✓ | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Self-hosted / open-source available | ✓ | ✓ |
| Managed cloud available | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Governance** |  |  |
| Data lineage / asset catalog | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Authoring** |  |  |
| Python-first authoring | - | ✓ |
| **Execution** |  |  |
| Incremental / partition-aware runs | - | ✓ |
| **Quality** |  |  |
| Built-in data quality / tests | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale (distributed executor) | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:34:35.102Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*